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Topic: "Paying it forward"....acts of kindness done for you by strangers (Read 93455 times)

Yesterday we were grocery shopping. We were at checkout and there was a blonde woman in front of us. Other than that, I didn't pay special attention, nor did I know her.When we were up for check out the clerk rang us up for $43 dollars in groceries, and told us the woman in front of us paid $20 on our bill. so we owed only $23. I was so surprised.

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I've never knitted anything I could recognize when it was finished. Actually, I've never finished anything, much to my family's relief.

EHell had it own pay it forward moment about a decade ago. One afternoon I smelled something odd in the utility room of our 130-year-old house. We couldn't place what it was and even thought it might have been a freon leak from the freezer. I called 911 and within minutes our house was filled with 15-20 volunteer firefighters. They quickly ascertained that a circuit breaker was scorching and about to catch fire. Had we been away from the house that afternoon, it would have burned the building to the ground. One of the firefighter's father was a retired electrician and he was called. He came over and replaced the faulty circuit breaker while holding the rapt attention of all these firefighters. He refused any payment for the new breaker or his time.

So, I organized a fundraiser on EHell to benefit our tiny, all volunteer, woefully underfunded fire station telling Ehellions that we were saved from fiery destruction. Ehellions donated over $500.00 which I gave to the fire chief from the members of the Ehell forum.

While we were visiting Hersheypark this summer, we were on a tight budget. My daughter was playing in the arcade, getting ready to cash in her tickets, when a pair of grandparents came up to us and gave her over 500 tickets. They had won over 1,000 tickets on a game of some sort, and their grandson didn't want to spend all of them so they gave the tickets away to my daughter.She used it with hers to get a phone case, and then still had about 250 left over, which we passed along to a little boy who had only a few tickets.

We have had so many moments where we have been blessed with people's kindness, like several years in a row that Christmas was going to be a little on the skimpy side (DH and I both come from large families and we also have 5 children) we received cash in the mail from Santa Claus.( the card was signed Santa Claus and there was no return address) it was always enough that we were able to give our children nice gifts, have a great meal, and enough left over to give a good amount of food to the local Christmas food drive.

To pay it forward, there was a woman that was neighbors with DH while he was growing up, whose children are in school with my children, their house burnt to the ground. Just that week we found ourselves with extra money that was not earmarked for anything in particular (that did NOT happen very often). We decided to put it on a refillable visa card so they could use it for what they needed, clothes, food, fuel, whatever. I don't think they ever realized who gave it to them.

My father used to shovel and snow blow the neighbors driveway as both of them had health problems but died a few years ago. When they were alive, they would make sure my dad had a snack and a hot cup of coffee.

The lady next door to my parents is close in age to my parents and lives alone plus works a lot in retail. My dad will make sure her driveway is cleared in the same way he did for the other neighbors, and she tries to compensate him but my dad does not always take what she offers - but she always gives my parents Xmas presents for helping her.

My light on my car came on for low tire pressure thanks to the cold weather. I pulled into a local firestone and asked for help with getting air in the tires. The guy said please pull up to last bay, someone will help you for no cost. After the young man was finished adding the air, I thanked him and gave a few dollars which he appreciated.

This happened years ago when I was still living with my parents and hadn't been driving (mums car) long. Driving home from work one dark cold wet evening I'd just left the street lit when a lorry coming the opposite direction flicked up a stone and my previously un-chipped windscreen shattered. it stayed together but all the edges of glass basically made the entire screen white. I stopped swore a bit before realising there was a tyres/brakes/exhaust (no servicing) garage only 1/4 mile back. so I walked back asked to use the phone (pre mobiles) to call my parents, only they were out for the evening and my sister being on 15 couldn't help. When they heard the problem the guys at the garage went out and brought the car back, offered to keep it locked up over night so my parents could arrange repair the next day and got me a lift to the bus station so I could get home without getting any wetter than I already was. They were so surprised the next week when I took them a big tin of chocolates to say thank you and I still go there for tyres/brakes.

I came home at lunch one day to find our driveway had been snowblowed. (I drive a Jeep, I just launch over the plow-bank but was dreading backing in later.) Found out it was the neighbours across the street who we don't even know. I left a thank-you note on their door with some treats for their dog and my phone number in case they'd like to get our dogs together for a playdate (I have a fast Coon Hound, they have a fast Border Collie.) The husband texted later thanking us for the treats and said they'd love to get the dogs together when the weather gets nicer.

Three years ago, my parentsí home was destroyed in the Joplin MO tornado that devastated a third of the city. In the wake of the disaster, the goodness of people shone like a million suns. Desperately needed items arrived by the truckload. Volunteers roamed the streets offering help. Some high school kids from a nearby city found my brotherís dogs (alive) in the rubble.

This past week a tornado struck a city in my state. Some residents of my city are filling two semi trailers with donated items that will be driven to the site. Iíve gone through my house, boxing up things that I know will be of use. Iíve also purchased quantities of items I know will be needed.

Iíve made three trips to the donation site, and each time there was a continual stream of cars arriving with donations.

We get so jaded by unending bad news and stories of bad people, but in the worst of times, itís obvious that the world is full of wonderful people. Being reminded of that is a gift in itself.

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It takes two people to play tug of war. If you don't want to play, don't pick up the rope.

At the beginning of last school year I was buying supplies at walmart. I had reached my limit (payday was waaaay away) and had to put a couple of cases of spiral notebooks and some pencils back. The man behind me asked how many kids I had in school and when I told him none, I was buying supplies for kids who didn't have any, he bought the rest and then added to what I already had. He was totally gracious and just told me to have a good year and that teachers are underappreciated.

When I told someone about this a couple of weeks ago they went and told their church and the church had donated a few boxes of supplies and a case of backpacks. I have a head start on next year! She also told me that I was the only one in a long time to write a thank you note. I am being split between my current school and another school next year and both really need help.

A nice little one yesterday evening - I popped into Lidls to buy 4 or 5 items on my way home after work. There was only one checkout open, and when I got there, the guy in front of me looked at my basket with 5 things in, and then at his trolley which was 2/3 full, and told me to go ahead of him.

Earlier this week I was having trouble charging my laptop. (I'd been having trouble for a while, it just got really bad by Monday.) I had to fiddle around for ages to find a position in which to physically hold the charger at an angle in the charger port, in order for the laptop to charge.

So I took my laptop into work for one of our IT guys to look at. I was right, it was the port that was the problem. Turns out the soldering my dad did for me last year when I had a similar problem, wasn't as good as he thought, so the IT guy at work re-did it for me. When I got my laptop home, it wouldn't connect to the internet, so I took it into work again. The same guy sorted the wi fi out for me (the switch had broken).

I thanked him so many times, because I am SO grateful for his help. He's a lovely guy who does favours like this for pretty much everyone who asks; I made sure to ask politely and thank him, because I appreciate he did me a huge favour. A repair place would have charged me a fair amount of money for the labour, whereas my colleague did it for me for free. This isn't in his job description, by the way - this was my own personal laptop from home, wholly unconnected with work, which he didn't have to take a look at. I'll make sure I buy him a drink or two at the staff summer drinks do.

About twenty years ago (I was around four at the time), my mom and I were at a certain big box store. She was using the payphone, and I asked if I could play with one of the arcade machines. She shushed me, saying she didn't have the change for me to play. A couple of seconds after she said that, a couple that had just walked through the door handed me a couple of quarters and the lady said, with a smile, "Here you go sweetie!" I thanked them and went to put them in the machine. I can't even remember what kind of machine it was - I think it was a claw machine but I could be mistaken. Either way, it made me so happy and I had almost forgotten about it until yesterday when I thought of it. It wasn't a big thing, but it made me so happy for a few minutes. I wonder if they remember doing it for me.

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"Some of the most wonderful people are the ones who don't fit into boxes." -Tori Amos

Last weekend I was at Baskin Robbins, and I couldn't make up my mind which flavor of ice cream I wanted. When it was my turn to order, I told the lady behind me (and her two teenagers) to go ahead, because I still couldn't decide. They bought their treats and left the store, and when I did order my ice cream, I found out that they had paid for mine! I definitely was not expecting that.